Stoner pips Lorenzo at Jerez

Reigning world champion Casey Stoner got his first taste of victory in the 2012 MotoGP season at the Jerez Circuit – a race which also happened to be the first of the 1000cc era in Europe. A wet practice session, dry qualifying and damp warm-up session had messed up setup for some riders, chief amongst Stoner, who only managed to qualify fifth on the grid. As the lights went out, it was tiny Dani Pedrosa who shot to the front in usual fashion, snatching the lead from pole sitter Jorge Lorenzo. Stoner, who managed to retain his fifth place going into the first corner, fought his way past Cal Crutchlow, Andrea Dovizioso, Nicky Hayden, Lorenzo and Pedrosa during the entertaining early stages, which saw some hectic out-braking moves, side-by-side racing and contact on more than one occasion.

After a gutsy overtaking manoeuvre on the pack in front, Stoner managed to get into the lead, and there was no looking back after that, as he and Lorenzo, who had managed to get past Pedrosa as well, started to pull away from the rest of the group. Initially, Hayden did well to hold on to third place on his Ducati. But as the laps progressed, the American started to fall back and was passed by Pedrosa and the Monster Tech 3 Yamaha pair of Cruchlow and Dovizioso.

After moving into third place, Perdosa spent much of the race defending his position from a combative Crutchlow, the pair almost catching the leaders in the latter stages as Pedrosa denied the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 rider his first podium by less than half a second, even though the Brit managed set the fastest lap of the race. At the front, though Stoner had started to inch away from Lorenzo during the middle stages of the race, the Spaniard suddenly managed to close the gap with nine laps to go, in what looked to be a repeat of Qatar. The pair were rarely separated by more than half-a-second for the remainder of the race, and even though Lorenzo managed to contemplate a few overtakes, he wasn’t able to make one stick. And with the crazy fast last lap Stoner managed to pull out of his hat, the Australian scored his 41st GP win at Jerez.

Crutchlow's team-mate Dovizioso eventually settled into a safe fifth while Hayden, starting from his first front row since 2010, slipped back to eighth after his early heroics - finishing behind satellite Honda riders Alvaro Bautista and rookie Stefan Bradl. With Randy de Puniet failing to finish as he parked his Aspar Aprilia on the penultimate lap, the twelfth place at Jerez and the top CRT spot went to his teammate Aleix Espargaro. Nine-time world champion Valentino Rossi, now in his second year in Ducati struggled through much of the race. The Italian superstar’s 200th premier-class GP appearance saw him start from a lowly 13th on the grid eventually managed to pip Ben Spies, Karel Abraham, de Puniet and a fast moving Hector Barbera to cross the finish line in ninth place.

NEXT PAGE: MOTO2

Moto2

The Moto2 race at Jerez was nothing short of chaotic as rain came down on the fifteenth lap and completely disrupted the proceedings. Thankfully though, as two-thirds of the race distance was already covered by the time the race was red-flagged at the end of lap 18, the riders were able to score full points for the event.

At the start, it was Pol Espargaro who got away quickest from the lights, and managed to push pole sitter Marc Marquez wide into turn one, while  Interwetten-Paddock rider Thomas Lüthi capitalized on this and soon took the lead. Second on the grid, Italtrans Racing Team´s Takaaki Nakagami had a less than ideal start being pushed back to ninth.

The opening lap was an absolute thriller as Scott Redding fought his way to the front with Espargaró, Mike Di Meglio and Marquez. Takaaki´s team mate Claudio Corti was just behind the leading group in in sixth position, as Toni Elias pushed himself past Randy Krummenacher to settle into seventh place. Prior to the rain, it was anyone’s race between Marquez, Espargaro, Redding and Luthi, who were battling ruthlessly for victory. Redding's teammate Mika Kallio made it a five-way fight just before the halfway stage, but was caught out by the rain and ran off the track. Redding also lost several seconds in the slippery final stages and finished just a few tenths ahead of rookie Nakagami.

At the front, though Qatar winner Marquez managed to pass Espargaro and take the lead when the rain was coming down hard on lap 18, he had to settle for second place as officials took the standings from the last completed lap, i.e. lap 17, as the final results for the race. That bumped Espargaro up to the winner’s podium giving him his first ever race win in the Moto2 class. Andrea Iannone, second to Marquez in Losail, dropped from 13th to 22nd on lap one and eventually brought his Speed Up chassis home in 14th place. Marquez still maintained his lead in the overall standings in the Moto2 world championship, but is followed closely by Espargaro, who is just four points behind.

NEXT PAGE: MOTO3

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Moto3

In the second race of his debut Grand Prix season, rookie Romano Fenati bested seasoned competition to take his first win at the Spanish GP in Jerez. The 16-year old Italian racer shocked everybody as he crossed the finish line an unbelievable 36 seconds ahead of second placed rider Luis Salom. Fenati in fact managed to lap everyone up to his eleventh place finishing team mate Alessandro Tonucci. With his second place in Qatar, Fenati had already become the first rider since 1998 to take a podium on his debut race and also became the first rider since Noburu Ueda in 1991 to have made the rostrum on his grand prix debut and follow it up with another podium finish at the next race.

In the difficult race conditions, Kalex KTM rider Salom had a good battle with Red Bull KTM rider Sandro Cortese, with Cortese managing to finish in third place. Alex Rins, who led the race for a while, brought his Repsol sponsored Estrella Galicia Suter Honda to a well-deserved fourth place finish even though he ran wide into the gravel pit while in second place. Alexis Masbou, on the other hand, capitalised on his best ever qualifying to finish the race fifth for Caretta Technology Honda.  Qatar winner and title favourite Maverick Vinales had an early wobble that cost him quite a few places, but he still managed to carve his way up the order to sixth. Jerez's crash fest saw only 17 finishers and where Fenati taking the lead in the championship standings. 

NEXT PAGE: INDIAN EFFORTS

Indian Efforts

Mahindra Racing had an interesting weekend at Jerez, as the team came very close to a possible top ten finish at the hands of their veteran rider, Danny Webb. Webb, who had qualified in 21st position got involved in what can only be described as carnage on the first lap, as riders went down all around him in the extremely slippery wet conditions. After completing the first lap in 23rd place, Webb slowly and steadily worked his way up the order. His wet weather experience and the capability of the Mahindra bike saw him climb to 11th place, bunched up in a pack of seven bikes fighting for sixth place. But a technical issue which shut his engine down on lap fifteen saw him retire out of the race.

His teammate, Marcel Schrotter, on the other hand ran a very different race. After hitting a puddle on the first lap, the 19-year old German slid out of the race. But his resilience paid off as he remounted the bike, pitted for repairs and got back into the race. Schrotter worked hard throughout the race, but wasn’t able to improve his fortunes beyond sixteenth position, a solitary place out of the points.